Lord Burns' government-appointed panel has thrown the BBC into disarray after recommending the board of governors should be scrapped and replaced with a new independent body, the Public Service Broadcasting Commission. By Jason Deans.

11.45am update: Lord Burns, the peer leading the government review that will determine the BBC's funding for the next decade, today indicated the licence fee would survive for the next 10 years. By Owen Gibson.

Regulation of the BBC will have to be tightened up if it is to be allowed to continue with a broad range of services, the man charged by the government to oversee the review of the corporation's charter warned today.

Lord Burns has been the chairman of Abbey National since 2002. He is also the chairman of Glas Cymru (Welsh Water), the governing body of the Royal Academy of Music and a non-executive director of Pearson Group and British Land.

· The appointment of Terry Burns as one of the key figures investigating the future of the BBC and the licence fee will have sent a shudder down the spines of some BBC executives. Lord B, you see, is very good mates with another Lord B not long since departed from TV Centre - that's right, Lord "The Harder Path" Birt. Not only that, the two of them have holiday cottages quite close to each other in Wales, surely the perfect hideaway to draw up their "Top 10 questions to ask Greg Dyke".